Surg+Restore 2016 Annual Report

In May of 2016, Surg+Restore hosted a fundraiser to finance the education and training of Sierra Leone’s first and only anesthesiologists. The charity was fortunate to be invited for live interviews to discuss our project and promote the event on four radio stations in the Portland area, KINK, KBOO, XRAY FM and the Portland Radio Project. Three thousand -five hundred dollars was raised towards our mission in Sierra Leone.

After over a two-year hiatus due to the Ebola epidemic, Surg+Restore financed a medical mission to Sierra Leone in the fall of 2016. Working alongside our partner charity from the United Kingdom, ReSurge Africa, the mission commenced with a full day of evaluating and triaging patients in our pre-operative clinic. Twenty-three surgeries were performed and logistics of patient flow and post-operative care were realized. Two lectures were presented to the Holy Spirit Hospital (HSH) staff in our new teaching center, located above the laundry and sterile supplies center in the new building financed by ReSurge Africa. Improvements to patient care were noted to include an available supply of piped oxygen to the surgical theater and a properly functioning Braun electric anesthesia machine with vaporizers and a ventilator completely financed and delivered by ReSurge Africa.

While in Sierra Leone, Dr. R. Scott Brown (Founder and President of Surg+Restore) and Dr. Odhran Shelley (Chairman of ReSurge Africa) engaged in multiple meetings with the leaders in medical care in the Sierra Leone community including Bishop Natalio Paginini, president of HSH; Dr. Patrick Turay, medical director of HSH; members of the Clinton Foundation; the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health; and Dr. Thaim Kamara, chief of surgery at Connaught Hospital in Freetown. The future of improving health care quality and access were discussed and the commitment to training and financing Sierra Leone’s first and only reconstructive and plastic surgery center at the HSH was confirmed.

Our charity also conducted interviews with physician candidates who expressed interest in our fully funded scholarship to become Sierra Leone’s second anesthesiologist in the history of the country. Drs. Brima Sesay, Fillah Kamara, Mohamed Bah and McLean Sana expressed interest in the positions. It was expressed to the candidates that they must first sit for and pass the West African College Entrance exams before being considered for the three-year training position at Korle Bu Hospital in Accra, Ghana.

Dr. Brown then journeyed to Ghana where arrangements were made for Dr. Mohamed Kargbo, our first anesthesia candidate, to commence his studies in May of 2016. The anesthesia department at Korle Bu was completely evaluated and the training curriculum reviewed. Dr. Brown then met with Dr. David Semple at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland where details were discussed and a two-year anesthesia scholarship for our Sierra Leone anesthesia candidates, fully funded by the Scottish government, were confirmed.

OUR CURRENT PROJECT

Surg+Restore’s mission is to provide the education and training, by accredited doctors using modern techniques, to Sierra Leone physicians in the practice of anesthesia. Our goal is to establish and maintain Sierra Leone’s first and only self-sustainable anesthesia department. This department will be efficient, qualitative and accessible to, among others, the underprivileged and disenfranchised.

The first step in establishing a self-sufficient reconstructive surgery and burn center in Sierra Leone is to facilitate and fund a three-year anesthesiology residency training program for each of our two Sierra Leone physicians. Our partner organization, ReSurge Africa is funding training for two plastic surgeons. These modern-trained, board-certified physicians will form the foundation for the country’s first and only center for reconstructive plastic surgery and burn care. We have secured collaboration with the Sierra Leone government, with a vision of self-sustainability within 10 years.

Surg+Restore and our partner charity from the United Kingdom, ReSurge Africa, have performed surgery on 1073 patients (over 26% of these children) between the fall of 2009 and the fall of 2016, the youngest child being 10 months old. During a typical year, our charities will sponsor four to six surgical teams that will perform around 50 surgeries during a one to two-week medical mission. The beneficiaries of this project are some of the poorest people in the world. These patients are afflicted by deformities and disabilities caused by genetic defects, tropical ulcers, cancers, burns, accidents, war, and other conditions.

SIERRA LEONE HISTORY AND CURRENT STATUS

Sierra Leone is a small West African nation of over seven million citizens. It is the home to enormous deposits of precious minerals and boasts the world’s second largest natural harbor. Despite its wealth of natural resources, over the last several decades Sierra Leone has consistently ranked among the seven poorest countries in the world. When examining key health indicators, such as life expectancy, child and maternal mortality and access to care, Sierra Leone annually ranks among the worst around the globe. An individual born today in Sierra Leone has an average life expectancy of 51.3 years and infant mortality, prior to age five, is 87 deaths per every 1000 live births.

Sierra Leone is still struggling to recuperate from the devastating effects of its 11-year civil war (1991 to 2002) as well as the Ebola crisis of 2014-2016, both of which further handicapped the country’s chronic shortage of trained doctors, nurses and ancillary personnel. Recent medical publications have estimated a prevalence of unmet surgical conditions at 25% of the population and potentially 92% of these would require intervention from an anesthesia professional. Additionally, in regard to the access to modern medical care, other investigations have cited that over 21% of burn victims and nearly 38% of those with breast masses, sought treatment from “traditional” healers.

It is estimated that less than 30 surgeons, zero anesthesiologists and 32 nurses (who have completed a one-year training in anesthesia), serve the entire nation. Physician density is 0.02 physicians to every 1000 population (1.5 and 2.55 per 1000 worldwide and in the U.S. respectively) and the hospital bed capacity of 0.4 per every 1000 (1.49 and 2.9 per 1000 worldwide and in the U.S. respectively). Additionally, a recent study at two tertiary hospitals in the capital city, Freetown, demonstrated a 1.2% surgical mortality.

2016 SURG+RESTORE FINANCIAL STATEMENT

INCOME & EXPENSES

$3,856 Private contributions

$3,856 TOTAL

How funds were allocated

$1,391 Professional fees

$688 Offices expenses

$2,079 TOTAL

$1,777 EXCESS OF REVENUE MINUS EXPENSES

YEAR-END FINANCIAL POSITION

Assets

$3,976 TOTAL CASH ASSETS

Liabilities and Net Assets

$0 Total liabilities

$3,976 Unrestricted net assets

$3,976 TOTAL

About Scott Brown

Dr. Brown is board certified in both anesthesiology and interventional pain medicine. He is a veteran of over 20 international medical missions in 5 continents. He currently is in private practice in Portland, Oregon and other than being president and founder of Surg+Restore, he is on the board of directors of ReSurge/Africa, CH Physical Therapy and Stewart+Brown. He is also the medical director of Oregon Anesthesia Group Interventional Pain Consultants and is the anesthetic consultant for Women 4 World Health. A native of north central Montana, he developed his desire to work with the underprivileged and marginalized, witnessing the plight of Native Americans in his hometown and the surrounding reservation lands. He is also the band leader and music director of the Afro-Latin Blues group, Ojos Feos. Many of his compositions are in reference to social justice in Africa and Latin America. He speaks Spanish, Russian and Sierra Leone Krio.